Prodigal society?

If the prodigal son of Jesus’ parable were living today, he would no doubt make a much better job of managing his money. His bank would gladly issue him with a dozen credit cards, and by juggling his payments he could sustain his lavish lifestyle for a good few years beyond his actual ability to pay for it. Eventually, of course, reality would catch up with him, the bailiffs would come knocking on his door, and he would join the many real-life victims of the credit industry.

This kind of thing doesn’t just happen in the area of finance. I have also come across the concept of ‘social capital’: not money, but a reservoir of concern and goodwill that people have for one another. At its most basic (primitive?) level, it works like this: parents look after their children, and later the children repay their social ‘debt’ by caring for their parents. Societies are more complex than this, of course, and other people (extended family, neighbours, friends, etc) have to be brought into the equation. When the system works properly, we are barely aware of it; we automatically help our relatives and neighbours in various ways, great and small. But as interaction with neighbours decreases and families become smaller (and many choose not to have children at all), some people have expressed concern that our society may be getting ‘poorer’ in an invisible way. The State is taking over many of the functions that used to be performed by communities – and this is not only often somewhat impersonal but also more expensive in monetary terms. And many unfortunate people slip through the net.

Is there also such a thing as “spiritual” capital? Western Europe is now described as a “post-Christian society”, for obvious reasons. Many people believe that this is a good thing, and the atheists insist (quite rightly) that good behaviour is not necessarily the product of religion. But I wonder if we are not still living off the ‘spiritual capital’ built up over nearly two thousand years of strong Christian influence. It will probably take more than one generation to use it all up. But when it is all used up, the consequences may be more devastating than we can imagine.